Proud day for St Mary’s contingent
AS one of six Ardee St Mary’s players in the Louth camp, Conor Gillespie agrees Sunday will a proud day for the mid-Louth club.
However, the two-goal hero from Wexford Park insists that the Louth minors need every club in the county behind them at Croke Park on Sunday.
‘It’s great for the club to have so many representing the county at Croke Park. Hopefully now all the clubs can come together and see what happens.’
The skilful attacker is naturally looking forward to his first run-out at headquarters, which is a long way from last November and a disappointing league campaign.
‘The mood in the camp is good and we’re just getting on with it. I know it’s hard to treat it as just another game, and you have to take the Croke Park thing into it, but we’ve been training since November and we feel we can go all the way.
‘After the three league defeats the mood in the camp wasn’t great, but the championship has been a huge lift for the county and even to ourselves. If someone had told us after the three league games that we would be playing in Croke Park this summer in front of the senior game against the Dubs we’d have taken it any day of the week. It’s absolutely brilliant.’
Gillespie pinpoints the first-round win in Laois as the turning point and he’s hoping three narrow wins will stand to the Reds on Sunday.
‘The Laois game was the turning point. Those extra few minutes have stood to us and our fitness has propelled us over the line in the latter stages of games. It was a very tight game in Wexford. We we got five ahead we thought we’d see it out from there, but fair play to Wexford they came back at us again and we had to see it right through to the end. It was an amazing game.’
Having not played Dublin this term, Louth will have to rely on manager Wayne Kierans’ research, but Gillespie know it doesn’t take a genius to work out that they’ll be a good side.
‘We haven’t played Dublin, but we’ve heard bits and pieces. Dublin is Dublin, so you know what you’re going to get. The three boys will have their homework done and they’ll have us well drilled on what needs to be done.
‘There seems to great belief and character in the squad and even when things start to go wrong we don’t panic and settle things back down and kick on again.
‘I’ve never played at Croker, so it’s a dream come true. It’s a privilege an honour to wear the Louth jersey in Croke Park, and we just can’t wait now.’